A. They forgot their priorities, they became insecure. At the very time the Democrats were trying to win elections by pretending to be us, our guys were pretending to be them.

Q. Did Tom DeLay [a fellow Texan who was House majority leader from 2003-2006] become a liability to the party?

A. Oh yeah. I'm amazed at the number of people who tell me this. I have my own understandings and feelings about Tom DeLay. . . . I don't believe he's a good person, and I don't believe he is a person who should have been in public office.

Q. Why don't you like him?

A. I don't like sneaky, conniving people. I don't like people who get behind closed doors and contrive against other people. [He]) has had -- what's the word I want? -- an aggressive tendency to create the opportunity to do back-door, behind-the-door, closed-door, dark-room contrivances against people. I just consider that unacceptable.

Q. How do Republicans get Congress back?

A.They have to prove to the American people that they really are the small government conservatives the Democrats are pretending to be.

Q. Who's going to be president? Who's going to win?

A. If you said right now, Dick Armey, put your money on a horse that's in the race, I'd put my money on Hillary. She will be whoever you want her to be. She's a skillful, able politician.

Q. Is George W. Bush a failed president?

A. I've said over the years that every president either ends up a pleasant surprise or a bitter disappointment. And we haven't had a pleasant surprise since Ronald Reagan. I don't see how anybody can look at the Bush presidency and say this was a success in public policy terms.

Q. Your views on the Iraq war?

A. I'm not sure that it was the right thing to do. You might say removing Saddam from power was a right thing to do. Maybe it was, but was that necessarily then our responsibility to do that? And was it our responsibility to do that by invading a country that had in no way declared any war on us?

Q. You voted for the resolution to go to war.

A. I did, and I'm not happy about it. The resolution was a resolution that authorized the president to take that action if he deemed it necessary. Had I been more true to myself and the principles I believed in at the time, I would have openly opposed the whole adventure vocally and aggressively.